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  Blog: blogalong with boris #34  
Hi All –
On the 7th of June, after a week of brilliant weather, the sky opened over the Central Coast of New South Wales.
The Bureau of Meteorology had put out a gale warning for coastal waters, but the rain and conditions during daylight gave few clues on what was expected after dark.
Power went out for an hour during the day at the Whale Call camp, but was restored, only to go out again in the evening.The cause of the second power failure was fallen tree branches over lines, not just along the road, but throughout the shire. Over 500 lines were severed by tree falls in this suburb alone.
Fortunately, I was prepared for power outages by maintaining a solar powered battery bank – I had power for lights and the pc. The phone was still on, so I settled down to some online work.
Wind speeds started to increase, and rain became torrential – I made sure all was shipshape outside, then went to bed..
At about 1am, I was awoken by even heavier rain, accompanied with tempestuous gusting winds. Suddenly there was a huge cracking sound, followed by an immense thud.
The first tree had succumbed to the storm.
The rain and wind eased – I went back to sleep.When I next awoke at daybreak, the winds were still strong, and the roosters were making a freaked out warning call, so I threw some clothes on and quickly ran outside to see if it was the fox up to his usual tricks – but I had trouble seeing the hen house for fallen branches – 

   

a Spotted gum tree had fallen, got hung up in another tree, and was hanging precariously over the hen house.The fallen branches were also covering the car, which did not have a scratch
I should also mention I had trouble seeing the ground as well – it was covered by a sheet of rapidly flowing water up to a foot deep in some places on the sloping site.
Noting that the catchment for the campsite is about 2 acres, and it was flooded, I had a vague suspicion the camp was in trouble – so I called the State Emergency Services to at least come and remove the threatening tree.
Friday morning was still a bit windy, but the rain had stopped for a bit, so I surveyed the damage and some of the local flooding before the rain came in again.At about 2pm I retrieved the measuring jug I had put on a fuel drum in the open at 4 pm the previous day – it had a litre of rainwater in it –
During breaks in the rain, I continued the cleanup, and prepared for another night of wind and rain – the camp site and caravan were still being threatened by trees, so I had put the pc and food and dry clothes in the Whale Call bus with intention to move to a safer spot on the top of the hill, where there were no trees.
I didn’t get far.
The track up the hill is the access track to the shire water tanks, and the base tower for communications locally.
Power had gone out on Thursday, so Vodaphone, the owner of the tower, had a generator taken up the track on Friday, to resume communication facilities – I got the bus to possibly the second safest spot up the track when I ran out of petrol.
We have recently been working on restoring the bus, and had just fitted the rebuilt motor – it was running on petrol, we hadn’t fitted the lpg gas to the carby – I could do it now in the dark and wet, or leave it till the morn – I chose morn.
Then the Vodaphone truck came down the track, past the bus, and attempted to exit the property – a tree was down on the track, taking out the switched off power cable, and blocking him in – he had to go get fuel for the generator to keep it running –Here’s where it gets interesting – this is Friday night, power in most of the shire has been off for a day, no fuel stations able to open bar a few with their own generators – the dude was from out of town and didn’t know directions, or where to go for fuel – so I jumped in his truck and directed him thru the back track to the only fuel station open – he got fuel, and the communication tower stayed open for business – I went to sleep in the bus, amidst a torrent of rain and small branches flying until I heard the thump I had heard the previous night, only closer and louder.  

 

First light was not raining, so I emerged from the bus to see a tree down – taking another 4 trees with it – and the front of the bus was staring at a huge hole, left by the roots being ripped out – just 8 meters away.
It fell away from the bus.
On Saturday morning, the bush was eerily quiet – no birds singing, no wind, as though it was in shock. The Vodaphone man came down to see how I was, and had to remove large tree branches from the track to get to the bus.Spots of sunlight emerged, and we walked down the track to the Whale Call camp. 
 
 

It was trashed.
Another large tree had fallen during the night, and took out the loungeroom/kitchen area, and the laundry shed.
The above pic shows Whale Call supporters Debs[with a grin] and Audrey[still in shock]It bent a shipping container, and took out the phone line.
The measuring jug had been blown over, so no idea of how much rain accompanied the wind, but by the look of the local flooding, it had been copious.
The rain returned and fell on and off during the day. Some observations of immediate forested land indicated 19 trees ripped from the ground, including one Scarred Tree, previously recognised as a possible canoe tree.
In the afternoon I had the chance to be driven to other local areas to assess the damage – flooding of all local rivers, creeks and drains was extensive, washing thousands of tonnes of plastic, all kinds of rubbish, mattresses, clothing, dead birds and animals, and more into the lake system, only to be sucked out to sea in the following low tide. 
  

Storm surges and high tides, together with a partially blocked entrance to the ocean had enabled the lake to reach flood levels, inundating hundreds of houses in the valleys, and around the lake edge, and other low lying ex wetland developments. 
  
 

The storm also took out about a hundred meters of sand bank at the entrance channel, allowing a huge plume of pollutants to be released in the sea, when the lake level rose above the ocean level.
This pollution, including sewerage from broken pipes and shut down/overloaded sewerage systems, washes down the rivers into the lake, and into the oceans, to enter the oceanic food chain.
Passing Whales, and there are many at the moment, have to swim through this putridity.
Council provided hundreds of portaloo's to provide residents affected by sewerage breakdown – one per every 4 houses in some areas. 

  

the Wyong river, before the peak- it came up to the road in this spot – 
I fitted the l.p.g. system to the bus, started it, moved it to a safer spot, and settled in for the night. By this stage, I had no dry clothes left, no dry socks, and no dry boots.About 7 pm, totally dark and raining, a vehicle attempts to enter the track, but is blocked by the tree.
I could see torches and men on the track, so I dressed in wet wet weather gear and walked down to see—it was Optus, one of the communication companies that had equipment on the tower – they needed to get a generator in – so out came their chainsaw, and the trunk was cut, enabling them to use a winch to get the trunk off the track to allow entry, all in the rain – so Optus customers got mobile phone coverage again.
I retired to the bus, and dried off with a non wet blanket. It rained heavily, with more wind.
Sunday morning was sunshine, a few bell birds were calling, as were wood ducks.Action on Johns rd drew my attention, it was Energy Australia working on fixing broken power wires—12 trucks, workers from Wollongong, Cowra and Bathurst restored power to the Whale Call Camp, and the Communication tower, removing branches over the line, left by the Optus boys.
They hadn’t long finished, and the State Emergency Services arrived.
A Volunteer crew from Albury, the town I was born in, arrived to start removing trees over the camp buildings. They were unequipped to remove trunks, nor to access the big tree hung up in another, threatening a vehicle and the chook house, but out came a pole saw, and the top weight from the tree over the bathroom/laundry was efficiently removed, with a promise a new team with the necessary cherry picker and crane would return to finish the job.
Rainfall in my measuring jug was 450mm for the 24 hrs up to 4 pm Sunday.
Monday morning I tried to get my gas bottle filled so I could cook – gas outlets were either closed, or out of gas, it was an official public holiday, supermarkets were closed due to storm damage and no power –I hear the wyong hospital got flooded at the height of the deluge --  
I went back to the camp to find dead firewood to cook on, and made a new campfire – the old one is still under trees – then the S.E.S. crews turned up with heavy equipment – a 35 tonne crane, and the cherry picker that was needed to take the remaining top weight off.They took their lunch break, then got into the job.  
  

the weight of the worlds problems helps this Footscray S.E.S. worker collapse the polyfoam box he was sitting on for lunch – 

  

They removed 2 trunks from dangerous spots hanging over the camp, and created no further damage to vehicles or infrastructure.
    

removing the top weight –
   

Whale Call, and the Wadalba Association wish to sincerely thank the attending crews -- An absolute professional job by volunteers from Knox [vic] Footscray [vic], Baulkham Hills [n.s.w.] and Wyong S.E.S. units.
Tuesday morning Council were in to clean up over 15 tonnes of roadbase that had washed down the track onto Johns rd.
Today, Friday, council send a crew to repair the track, and the Shire is still shaking itself back to normal, with houses still flooded, power still off in some areas, hundreds of homes wrecked, and thousands of cars written off by insurance for water damage.
Reports by authorities indicate winds of up to 180 kph on the central coast – that’s category 3 cyclone.Over 50 pics of this cyclone event are here -- http://www.whalecall.org/gallery/v/whalecall/?g2_page=2 More will be added when available -- 

 
Posted: Jun 14, 2007 9:45pm | comment (2) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Blog: blogalong with boris # 33  
Hi all – "Only when the last tree has died and the last river poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." -Cree Elder.Before we get into the nitty gritty, here’s a pic of a recent rainbow – more pics at bottom of blogalong -- r One of the recent news items in Australia has been the forced withdrawal from the market of incandescent globes, in favor of Compact Fluorescent Lights [CFL’s] Unfortunately, these bulbs are not as eco friendly as the power industry spin doctors are telling us.It has been known for years that fluorescent lighting leads to eye strain, migraines, and in some cases, brain tumors, and the manufacturing process uses toxic heavy meals and gasses. Thanks to wikipedia and the web, I have been able to put together this look at this so called ‘clean’ technology. 
Energy saving light bulbs A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also known as a compact fluorescent light bulb or an energy saving lightbulb, is a type of fluorescent lamp that fits into a standard light bulb socket or plugs into a small lighting fixture.Gas discharge lamps are a family of artificial light sources that generate light by sending an electrical discharge through an ionized gas, i.e. a plasma. The character of the gas discharge critically depends on the frequency or modulation of the current: see the entry on a frequency classification of plasmas. Typically, such lamps use the noble gas (argon, neon, krypton and xenon) or a mixture of these gases. Most lamps are filled with additional materials, like mercury, sodium, and/or metal halides. In operation the gas is ionized, and free electrons, accelerated by the electrical field in the tube, collide with gas and metal atoms. Some electrons circling around the gas and metal atoms are excited by these collisions, bringing them to a higher energy state. When the electron falls back to its original state, it emits a photon, resulting in visible light or ultraviolet radiation. Ultraviolet radiation is converted to visible light by a fluorescent coating on the inside of the lamp's glass surface for some lamp types. The fluorescent lamp is perhaps the best known gas discharge lamp. Gas discharge lamps offer long life and high light efficiency, but are more complicated to manufacture, and they require electronics to provide the correct current flow through the gas. The heat of the gas discharge vaporized some of the metal and the discharge is then produced almost exclusively by the metal vapour. The usual metals are sodium and mercury owing to their high vapour pressures that increase efficiency of visible spectrum emission. However, CFLs contain trace amounts of mercury. The amount is not large enough to pose a hazard to users (it is about 1/5 the amount in a typical digital watch battery), but it does become a concern at landfills and trash incinerators where the mercury from many bulbs can escape and contribute to air and water pollution.Some manufacturers such as Philips and GE make very low mercury content CFL’s.Safe disposal requires storing the bulbs unbroken until they can be processed. Consumers should seek advice from local authorities. Usually, one can either:Bring back used CFLs to where they were purchased, so the store can recycle them correctly; or Bring used CFLs to a local recycling facility. However, the glass is so thin and brittle, breakages are the norm.The first step of processing involves crushing the bulbs in a machine that uses negative pressure ventilation and a mercury-absorbing filter or cold trap to contain and treat the contaminated gases. Many municipalities are purchasing such machines. The crushed glass and metal is stored in drums, ready for shipping to recycling factories. Another type of fluorescent lamp is the electrodeless fluorescent, known as a radiofluorescent lamp or fluorescent induction lamp. Unlike virtually all other conventional lamps that have hardwired electrical connections to transfer energy to the lamp core, the electrodeless fluorescent accomplishes this solely by electromagnetic induction. The induction is effected by means of a wire-wound ferrite core that projects upward into the bulb encased in an inverted U-shaped glass cover. The wire is energized with high frequency electricity often 2.65 or 13.6 MHz; this ionizes the mercury vapor, exciting the phosphor & producing light.Another variation on existing CFL technologies are bulbs with an external nano-particle coating of titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is a photocatalyst becoming ionized when exposed to UV light produced by the CFL, thereby capable of converting oxygen to ozone, water to hydroxyl radicals, which neutralizes odors and kills bacteria, viruses, and mold spores.The Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light (CCFL) is one of the newest forms of CFL.CCFLs use electrodes without a filament. The voltage of CCFL lamps is about 5 times higher than CFL lamps and the current is about 10 times lower. Compact fluorescent lights (CFL) can save a lot of electricity and thus, depending on how this electricity is generated, can avoid a lot of negative impacts on the environment and human health.  But the production of CFL’s is more environmentally harmful than the production of general purpose lights (GPL). Hence, one part of the social costs due to negative environmental impacts is shifted from electricity production to CFL production. Recent investigations have found that the burdens of CFL production are indeed higher than those of the corresponding GPL production Long life high efficiency light bulbs have a short life if usually used for only a short period ( i.e. they are switched on for 15 minutes at a time three or four times a day). This pattern of use applies to most of the rooms in your house apart from the living room and kitchen.Taking into account the eco footprint of manufacturing and the extra work the consumer has to do to pay for them these 'short life long life bulbs' are far less 'eco friendly' than incandescent bulbs. The pressure from the industry to change to cfl’s does not address the initial issue – the power the industry produces is filthy – they want us to use it more efficiently, instead of producing it without toxic discharge, and the forced use of these bulbs will increase total power use from lighting, as these bulbs are only efficient if left switched on, using electricity to produce light in unused areas.the glass is actually coated on the inside with a mixture of metals, including mercury, in the form of mercuric oxide, not the silver liquid merc in a thermometer -- as the radioactive gas in the globe is excited by electricity, it reacts on the coating to make it glow.

this reaction starts to break down the oxides into their base components, and methyl mercury is released into the bulb as the coating slowly breaks down over the life of the bulb.


 One broken bulb will not kill you, but the cumulative impact of billions of these globes internationally has an undeniable ecological footprint that can be almost completely avoided with the use of solar charged 12 volt dc incandescent lighting

the manufacuring and disposal eco footprint of these bulbs wipes out the benefits from use of less power on the user end, and shifts the pollution to the manufacturers end -- so we all feel good -- we dont see the dead birds around the mercury factory, not the dead fish in the nearby rivers, and not the ecofootprint of this money making scam.

 Incandescents are made from glass and tin, with a metal filament -- no gas, no merc, the manufacturing footprint is tiny compared to cfl's which have ceramics, tin, glass, silica, radioactive gas, mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc, gold, and other electronic parts containing toxins.
apparently there are cfl's made without mercury, but as yet i havent been able to find data on them, and what mercury replacement is being used.
it is still better to use solar 12 volt, incandescents -- so little carbon release it isnt funny -- even my torches and spotlights are solar charged 
I also found this post on the web --Now I understand that the CFL’s use less electricity to operate and last longer than conventional bulbs (I have several in my home) but I had to wonder if they really are better for the environment… Based on what I’ve been reading, I’m not so sure.Ever seen the guts of one of these things? g
My electric shaver has less electronic components..Here’s the skinny on the one (above) that I took apart (all values are approximate as I’m working with a cheep caliper and an even cheeper calculator):Ballast
-Plastic casing
-Integrated circuit board - copper = 5.25 cm2 (approx.) - solder (lead) = undetermined amount
-Capacitors x 5
-Resistors x 16
-Micro chip
-Transformer
-Diodes x 9
-Epoxy glueGlass
-253 cm2 (surface area measurements)Inert gas - Argon
-69 cm3 (volume based on surface area measurements above)Conductor wire
-37 cmMercury
-5mgPhosphorus coating
-Fluorides
-Antimony
-Manganese
-Nuisance dustsHere’s the skinny on a regular incandescent bulb (all values are approximate as I’m working with a cheep caliper and an even cheeper calculator):Insulation
-EpoxyGlass
-113 cm2 (surface area measurements)Inert gas - Argon
-113 cm3 (volume based on surface area measurements above)Conductor wire
-16cmSupport wires
-3cmTungsten filament
-Undetermined lengthI didn’t include the screw fitting or contact plates as they’re the same in both types of bulb The CFL’s may be more efficient to operate but they sure as hell aren’t better for the environment from a manufacturing standpoint.
  • How many resources were consumed to create the electronics? That stuff doesn’t just magically appear you know. Where did it come from? Big manufacturing plants is where!
  • Each electronic component is coated in plastic. How much oil went into making that plastic?
  • How many resources were consumed to transport the electronics to the bulb manufacturer?
  • They use twice as much glass as regular bulbs.
  • They use twice as much conductor wire as regular bulbs.
  • To their credit, they use 1/2 as much Argon as regular bulbs.
  • They contain mercury - an environmentally hazardous substance
  • What about the phosphorous coating? Does that appear by magic? - Nope! It comes from a big manufacturing plant that uses electricity generated by burning fossil fuels!
  • Disposal of these things is a bitch! How much of it currently gets recycled? Just the mercury… And that’s only if the 50% of the population that actually recycles anything actually takes them someplace where they can be recycled.
During my reading I came across the following FAQ:Q How does the energy used in manufacturing CFLs compare with the energy saved by using the CFL?
A All CFLs are made overseas. The energy required to produce and ship a CFL is probably less than $0.25 per bulb.After reading that I was left with 3 questions;1. So, what, does the fact that it’s made overseas somehow negate the “energy in = energy out” equation?2. And is the fact they’re made with child labor in some sweat shop in china supposed to make me feel better about the low cost?3. If it was really only about $0.25/bulb, why am I paying an average of $3.00/bulb on the low end and an average of $20.00/bulb for units that have a tri-lite/dimming capability?
And this one –  
TABLE 1. POLLUTION FROM LIGHTING TECHNOLOGIES
(kg. per 30,000 hours of operation, unless noted otherwise)


Compact Excess Due to Use
Pollutant Fluorescent Incandescent of Incandescent
Sulfur dioxide (gm) 370.1 1,088.6 718.5
Nitrogen oxide 2.0 5.94 3.94
Carbon dioxide 657.3 1,933.6 1,276.3
Solid wastes 145.5 427.7 282.2
Mercury (gm) 0.059 0.114 0.06
Arsenic (gm) 2.72 7.98 5.26
Lead (gm) 6.73 19.79 13.06
Radioactive Gases (microcuries, uCi) 533 1,570 1,033
Radwaste (Ci) 0.21 0.61 0.4
Note "Solid wastes" include ashes, scrubber sludge, "low-level" radioactive wastes, and so forth. Source: "Compact Fluorescents, Radioisotopes and Solid Waste," by Warren C. Liebold and Lindsay Audin, Proceedings of the 1992 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/what_about_merc.php
 And this – Vital Statistics: Mercury

Mercury is a persistent toxin which bioaccumulates. It is particularly toxic when methylated and affects the central nervous system, fetus, reproductive organs and auto-immune system in virtually all its forms. It is used in small-scale gold mining worldwide causing serious public and ecosystem health impacts -- as displayed by the Mad Hatter and the Garimpeiros of Brazil alike.

Major Production Sources (metric tonnes)
Spain : 1,500
Kyrgyzstan : 580
China : 300
Algeria : 240
Global production : 2,890

Largest mercury mines in the world:

Name & Location
El Entredicho; Ciudad Real, Spain
Khaydarkan; Kyrgyzstan

1996 Production
1,380
580

Total Production to Date (metric tonnes)
260,000
29,820

 

Major uses in the United States (percent of the 372 tons used in 1996)

Chlorine and caustic soda production: 35%
Electric and electronic applications: 26%
Measuring instruments: 10%
Dental supplies: 7%
Other: 22%

Estimated amount used in the Brazilian Amazon for gold mining : 100 metric tonnes per year.
Estimated amount used to produce one ton of gold : 1-10 metric tonnes of mercury
The Netherlands is Brazil's main source of mercury, exporting 111 metric tonnes in 1993.

Estimated half life of mercury:

In mice: 7-8 days
In human bodies: 70 days
In air: 2 days to 2 years
In the human brain : 7 years

Major known accidents:

1940 - 1960: Minamata Bay, Japan, 1,800 deaths estimated.
(Waste dumped from an acetaldehyde plant contaminated local fish)
1971: Iraq; 2,000 death estimated
(Contaminated seed grain distributed to farmers throughout country)

Concentrations in water in parts per billion:

US EPA maximum permitted: 2.00 ppb
World Bank maximum permitted: 2.00 ppb
Chronic effects to aquatic life: 0.012 ppb
Streams near old mercury mines in Alaska: 5,000,000.00 ppb

Concentrations in fish in parts per million:

US EPA maximum permitted: 0.5 ppm
Brazil EPA maximum permitted: 0.5 ppm
Levels in Minamata Bay fish in 1956: 24.0 ppm
Levels in Madeira river (Brazil) fish in 1989: 2.7 ppm (max value)
Levels in Tapojos river (Brazil) fish in 1995: 3.8 ppm (single fish)

Possible substitutes for Mercury:

Mercury-zinc batteries : Lithium, nickel-cadmium, zinc-air batteries
Alkaline batteries: Indium compounds
Mercury cell chlorine production: Diaphragm and membrane cells
Dental amalgams: Ceramic composites
Mercury fungicides: Organic fungicides
Mercury thermometers: Digital instruments

Source: United States Geological Survey, 1997; "Mining in Tropical Regions", by IUCN, 1996; The Science of the Total Environment, 1995, 1987-1988;; World Bank Mining Guidelines, 1995; "Metals and their Compounds in the Environment", 1991; US Public Health Service, 1989; National Geographic, 1972.

 b

As time charges away in this calendar year, I find its March already – the year has been busy with Whaling matters, getting the WhaleCall / Councillor Greg Best  anti whaling petition counted and copies made for the Australian Parliament and for Teens Against Whaling [ www.teensagainstwhaling.com  ] so Skye Bortoli can present it to the International Whaling Commission Chairman, with the original going to the Japanese Consul to Australia, delivered by the Honorable Ken Ticehurst, Member for The Entrance.

 

The online version of this petition has 1347 signatures as of 21st March.

 

On Sunday 18th March, the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was on – when it opened there were 750,000 people there – this time, 200,000 were allowed to walk the bridge – and I was one of them –

 d

our fearless Whale Call treasurer, Debs  Raymont is looking at cam – in the orange.

 

At sunset, a Traditional Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony was performed  -- drums of gum leaves every 10 meters were placed along both sides of the bridge, and embers from the Sacred Fire were carried over the bridge by an Elder, accompanied by Marie Bashir, the New South Wales Governor.

b
 bridge

thousands of people wearing caps with lights walking the bridge --

 
Posted: Apr 5, 2007 3:13am | comment (3) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Alert: Teens Against Whaling  
Focus:Endangered Species
Action Request:Donation
Location:Australia
heres your chance to put your money where your mouth is --
Skye Bortoli is off to the I.W.C. meeting in Alaska as an observer, and will be presenting petitions from I.F.A.W. and Whale Call, to the I.W.C. chairman--
check this share -- http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/306711

and look at www.teensagainstwhaling.com

theres a donate button on the teens against whaling site --
please support this remarkable girl --

 
Posted: Feb 21, 2007 2:56am | comment (0) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Blog: blogalong with boris #32  
Hi allAs far as the modern calendar is concerned, this is the start of a new year.The Chinese New Year has begun, with this year being the year of the pig from Feb. 14th.

The Koreans, however, seem to be following the year of the pig literally with intentions to start pigging out on the solidified carbon storage under our current shire.

We have coal. Lots of it. High quality coking coal. You can smell the carbon from our coal all across the globe now.


Over 50 coal freighters waiting on this particular day – photo Isaac Ray 
The line up of huge coal freighters waiting to get to the coal loader at Newcastle is regularly in excess of 25 vessels—weeks at sea anchoring to wait for a load – this black stuff of ours must be so cheap – 
But hang on a minute –aren’t we considering carbon sequestration? 

Burying carbon dioxide in the soil with shaky technologies in a non leaking hole?Over 250 million years ago, nature did that for us – it took vegetation that would have released carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and buried it in a huge pit.

All went well until about 200 years ago, when we started burning some of this solidified carbon and virtually pumping it into our atmosphere. Every carbon molecule released to the atmosphere by combustion needs two free oxygen molecules to bind to – It is believed that continuing utilization of trapped carbon in combustion facilities has the capacity to seriously reduce the amount of available oxygen to life.

Below is a reprint from part of one of my published documents relating to the geological structure of this area -- 

Wyong’s foundations were laid some 270 million years ago when a huge area of land south of the Hunter region began sinking.
Great quantities of eroded material washed into the depression, firstly from the New England area to the north then later from the southwest.
The base of what is now known as the Sydney Basin gradually filled, forming a wide, shallow, sandy-bottomed sea.
The first material washed down from New England became the Greta Coal Measures which, at Wyong, are something like a kilometer below the ground.
Sand was then deposited all over the Basin, at Ourimbah some 200 meters thick and called the Maitland Group.
The sea retreated around 230 million years ago and the gigantic Newcastle Coal Measures, about 300 meters thick, 500 meters below Wyong, were laid down as the whole area took on the identity of a huge swamp.
This was the time of the first dinosaurs.Renewed uplift in the New England region brought still more eroded material down into the Basin by means of two large, southward-flowing rivers which ran side by side, close to the coastline. The rivers emptied into the shallow Basin via broad deltas. As more and more sediment was washed down to the deltas, solid ground was built up and so the mouths of the rivers advanced in the direction of flow.
By this means, a sandy coastline was formed as the Basin was closed off to the ocean.
All this sediment became the Narrabeen series, a mixture of shales, sandstones and conglomerates, the top layer of which is the Gosford Formation, observable all around Ourimbah today.
Then, about 200 million years ago, uplift of the country to the southwest of Sydney tilted the entire Basin and a new phase of erosion began. It was at this stage that the Hawkesbury Sandstone was laid down.
Great flows of sediment from the south, almost exclusively quartz, overlaid the more shaley Narrabeen Sandstone [Rose G, ‘Triassic Rocks of the Sydney District’ (1965) xv Australian Natural History (No 1) 22-28].
In the Yarramalong and Dooralong Valleys, and the Coastal Plain of Wyong Shire, the Narrabeen Group overlies the Newcastle Coal Measures.
The Narrabeen Group is interbedded with numerous claystone beds which act as aquatards (Claystone is the major lithology type of the Patonga Claystone and Tuggerah Formation within the Narrabeen Group). 

During the late 1990’s the entire non built land in the shire, including the lakes and the valleys were test drilled in a grid pattern for coal seams by Coal Australia.

At the time, I was engaged in shire wide surveys for Orchids and a new species of vulnerable tree, Angophora inopina, which I had supplied specimens and inspiration to have the species formally taxonomically described by Ken Hill from the Sydney Botanical gardens. 

As I traversed the shire looking for these species, I came across and monitored a number of drill rigs in operation. Having had a past in gem and mineral trading, there always remains an interest in what is coming out of the ground when a drill rig is specking – I look at the core samples to determine what geological structure is portrayed, and what minerals are likely in that particular strata.

There had been an expression of interest by an overseas company seeking jet for jewellery manufacture, and I was looking for a secure source.The world’s best quality jet was from a quarry in England, long ago mined out. Fortunately, Stockton had been used as a dumping ground for the ballast of sailing ships from England, and jet was amongst the ballast material, and occasionally, jet is to be found on the beach there – so I was looking at the core samples for signs of jet amongst the coal, and asking lots of questions of the geological staff on each rig site.

Many of the samples I saw were of high quality coking coal – not exactly the type of coal required by the electricity industry for generation, but the precise type of coal that is a high premium in the nuclear arms industry, and essential for the purification of weapons grade plutonium. 

Given the current political climate between North Korea who has recently gone nuclear with weaponry, and their neighbour, South Korea, who owns a majority share in the company that wants our coal, it may be prudent to reprieve the South Koreans of the material necessary to catch up with their threatening neighbour.
 
In 1999, Coal Australia had decided there was enough coal, but mining it presented problems that could increase the mining costs – in particular, gas.


So Sydney Gas put in some test bores and announced there was enough gas to power Sydney – they eventually pulled out due to community concerns re the loss of aquifers and water tables, as well as mine subsidence.


Wallarah creek, now reduced in flow from mine subsidence effecting aquifers emanating from Jenolan Caves. 

Then in December 2005 I had to go to the industrial estate in Sparks road to receive a parcel – it was late, and whilst waiting I spoke to the owner of the newly built factory bay. 
Some months previously during the construction of the next door premises, some workers took a break on a hot day and went to use the newly installed water tap at the front of the property.

The first two workers hit the dirt within seconds of approaching the tap, the third was also affected in pulling them away from the tap – ambulance was called and they were hospitalized, according to the next door owner. 
This tap is in almost the exact position of one of those test core sites – it is believed that gas from the coal seam seeped to the surface, hung in an area around the core, and poisoned the workers instantly. 

It is in this atmosphere that this Korean company wants to risk the lives of canaries, miners, then the planet, with the consequential carbon dioxides and methyl mercury emissions from their polluting unfiltered power plants, and the eventual release of products stemming from weapons grade plutonium production. 
For a number of years I have been communicating concerns about the plutonium aspect of the local coal extraction to concerned activists within the local anti coal/gas movement, and more recently about the gas poisoning episode, but the local version of nimbyism has continued to fight this important issue on local environment effects alone, and ignores the global consequences of selling our coal. 

The news of the 18th Jan brings home further catastrophic impacts from the removal and burning of Wyong coal.

United Nations, Jan 18 (Prensa Latina) The UN Environment Program called on the international community Thursday to plant one billion tress to mitigate the changes in climate, as part of a project to save the planet.
"Plant for the Planet, Billion Trees Campaign" is a call to everyone, children, teens, community groups, schools, NGOs, industries, farmers, local authorities and governments, according to UNEP.UN experts underscore the importance of rehabilitating tens of millions of acres and reforestation to restore soil productivity and mitigate the growing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
According to the specialists, it will be necessary to reforest an area the size of Peru in order to recoup the trees lost in the last decade.
Commitments for the sowing of 157 million plants have already been received, sources of the UN organization reported.
Today s call, presented in Paris, is the second since the celebration in November of the UN Conference about Climate Change in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The United Nations have recognised that we must plant billions of trees as soon as possible to absorb the carbon we have in the atmosphere now, and to trap future emissions of carbon – while we in Wyong shire prepare to sell carbon to our atmosphere via the south Koreans. 

Coal, Fossil Fuels and Carbon have been responsible for much of our planetary pollution, and if it is not obvious enough on the land, then take a look what it is doing to the oceans.  
In the past six months, thousands of negative reports on oceanic environmental conditions, extinctions of species like the Yang see river dolphin, hundreds of ‘dead’ spots along the worlds continents, acid seas, sudden and drastic temperature and current changes, species stocks collapse, chemical and heavy metal contamination of fish, dolphins and whales, skin diseases in dolphin populations, seas of floating plastic becoming common, each area of the worlds deep ocean floors and reefs being scraped by bottom trawlers every 16 years and getting faster, long lining taking Albatrosses to the brink of extinction, populations of small schooling fish being bought to near extinction by the demands of the salmon feeding and fish oil industries. 

With all this going on, and most of the damage being done by land borne forces, it makes little sense to save the Whales, as Whale Call is attempting to do, without addressing the factors on land that are driving the depreciation of our environment. 
So Whale Call has been working not only on stopping the Japanese from continuing their illegal murderous mammal slaughter in the Southern Whale Sanctuary, but on stopping some of the factors that are poisoning the Whale’s environment. 

It is no good stopping whaling on an international level, without ensuring the Whales have a healthy environment to live in. 

Wyong shire is a coastal plain hemmed in by hills – the plain is mostly private land, and the hills are mostly State Forests and National Parks. 
Housing and industrial development has occurred from the edges of the filtering wetlands out to higher elevations, so all the developments that affect the wetland filtering capacity need to be monitored for sources of pollution, and the wetlands need to be monitored to see if they are coping with the input of foreign matter. 
Previous vegetation removal now needs to be reversed as mentioned above in the U.N. article – Whale Call is actively lobbying for this reversal to happen.

The monthly Wadalba Report [ http://www.whalecall.org/index.php?page=improving.htm ]covers some of the issues we are working on – they may seem very land related, but the end result will be a cleaner ocean, as this shire is responsible for tonnes of oceanic pollution in varied forms. 

In November, Whale Call lobbied Wyong Council to sponsor a petition against Whaling, which they supported, with conditions that required the federal government to pay for it. 
So Whale Call lobbied Independent Wyong Councillor, Greg Best, and produced a petition sponsored by Whale Call and Councillor Best to distribute throughout the shire.

The hard copy of this petition has gone to many shops, clubs, and other venues throughout the shire with extremely positive response – Doctors, shops and clubs have been calling for more petitions because they filled theirs up within days – the online version of the petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/593501908 has been well supported with 1277 signatures so far, with over 10,000 signatures gathered on the hard copy. 

Whaling has taken on a new aspect after this years Antarctic conservation efforts by Sea Shepherd – 
Sea shepherd purchased a faster vessel, had registration problems with the Farley Mowat, and a day after Farley Mowat, who had been held up by red tape, left Australian ports, she was deregistered again by Belize. 
Meantime, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza, was sitting in New Zealand having Christmas parties, and gathering donations. Robert Hunter, the new Sea Shepherd ship was on the way to the Antarctic when Britain pulled the ships registration, giving them until the 19th of Feb to get back to port. 

The Japanese whaling fleet had been whaling unobstructed for over 6 weeks before Sea Shepherd found them illegally operating in the Ross Sea.



Robert Hunter chases the Nisshin Maru, pic Sea Shepherd. 

The action started immediately, with sea shepherd nailing steel plates over the flensing deck drain pipes on the lower hull, and throwing canisters of butter acid, a slippery non toxic acid, onto the flensing deck, interrupting whaling – then a zodiac succeeded in tangling a fishing net around the propellers of the Nisshin Maru, -- it was damaged in a collision with the factory ship, lost motors, and radio did not work – cloud rolled in obscuring view – the zodiac was left behind in the chase – a distress call was issued, and Sea Shepherd and the Japanese Whaling fleet joined the search for the zodiac and its two inhabitants. 

They were found seven hours later by the Farley Mowat, lassoed to an iceberg to stop them from drifting, both alive and well. 

The chase then continued – Nisshin Maru lost the conservationists, and sea shepherd chased the fleet until fuel issues demanded the Sea Shepherd fleet leave the chase and return to Melbourne. 

A day and a half after the Farley Mowat and the Robert Hunter left the whaling fleet, the Nisshin Maru had an explosion on the second deck, which led to a major engine room fire, disabling the ship. 146 crew were evacuated, with a skeleton crew of 26 left to stop the fire. 6 days later, the fire was reported under control, and the ship was cool enough to look for the missing Japanese seaman – who was found deceased. 

There has been no reported oil leak, but the ship is carrying large quantities of fuel oil, and other oils and chemicals. It is listing, and tied to 2 other vessels to keep it from sinking. 

At last, Greenpeace arrives. The Japanese refuse the offer of a tow to New Zealand by the Esperanza, an ex tug boat. This time Greenpeace has no choice but to sit and watch. 

There is a tug from New Zealand six days away, and the Japanese are prepared to sit and wait, endangering the nearby Adele Penguin colony, the largest in the Antarctic.

Whaling by this fleet is finished for the season, and the ‘catch’ was just over 50% done – that’s about 500 whales already killed and rotting in the unrefrigerated holds of the Nisshin Maru. 

The entire ‘catch’ might have to be jettisoned, making a severe eco impact on the ocean where it is dumped. 

Meanwhile, Japan called an extraordinary meeting of the I.W.C., held in Japan, to ratify a return to commercial whaling. It was boycotted by 32 of the leading anti whaling countries, and has caused a serious rift in the I.W.C. 

Finally, a nomination for one of the orchid species to be added to the threatened species act has been finished and sent to the N.S.W. Scientific Committee – you can find the supporting data with some pics of the flower at - http://www.whalecall.org/index.php?page=tsca.htm





 
Posted: Feb 17, 2007 5:52pm | comment (0) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Alert: Whale Call and Wyong Councilor join forces to stop whaling  
Focus:Endangered Species
Action Request:Petition
Location:Japan

Whale Call and Wyong Councilor join forces to stop whaling

in conjunction with Councilor Greg Best from Wyong Council, Whale Call has put a new petition on line.
this is an online copy of the petition circulating in Wyong Shire -
it is currently being well supported internationally -- please sign this petition, and consider signing the other online petitions Whale Call is sponsoring --

Save Our Whales - Stop Japan's Slaughter Now! To support the efforts of Councilor Greg Best of Wyong Shire to protest Whaling

Target: Japanese Embassy

Tell Australian PM to say NO to Japanese whaling in Australian Antarctic Territorial waters

Target: John Howard, Prime Minister, Australian Federal Government

TO EDUCATE THE JAPANESE PUBLIC THROUGH THE USE OF GLOBAL SISTER CITY RELATIONSHIPS

Target: Mr. Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister, Japanese Government and Royal Family
Save Whales from Navy Sonar deployment
our video, Blood on my Boots, "banned" by the Wyong Mayor from screening in the Chambers, has made it to the top video in the global GreenPeace action competition - please consider supporting this as well --
politico-environmental music video clips
remember, opting out of this mailing list is easy -- reply with ''not interested" in the subject line -- or -- you could say -- " here's fifty bucks for whale call -- get off my case" lol
have a nice day all --
:}
boris b
whale call et all
“every drop of rain that falls ends up in the mouths of whales – it is up to humans to control what substances enter that raindrop during its journey to the ocean”

 
Posted: Dec 1, 2006 5:46am | comment (0) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Alert: vote for whale call's greenpeace contest entry  
Focus:Endangered Species
Action Request:Visit - online
Location:United States

hi all --
an important note from Whale Call Media --
please repost to your networks

Heave ho shipmates, as you may know, Green Peace is asking people for any good ideas for campaigning against the coming Japanese whale slaughter in the Antarctica ~ well, i've just added the 'Blood on my Boots' clip onto Green Peace's Add an Idea page (addy below) as a sample of my work with the big Idea that they supply me with some of this years (ugh! where's a bucket) Antarctic film footage, then i can make a reggae protest clip (which i'm about to be record) which will be seen by an awesome amount of people on  music tv shows ~ this will help heapz to bring a much needed awareness to our cause ~ to bring about an end to the plight of our aquatic cousins, the whales ~~  

To assist Whale Call in achieving this goal, the clip needs HEAPZ of hits ~ the addy is...

http://whales.greenpeace.org/global/ideas/292  

Help the whales with a few clikz plz ~~


and follow our progress at -- http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=7516&pst=567875

thanks for your assistance in advance.
please pass this alert onto your network for immediate attention

Tony,Au media

 
Posted: Nov 25, 2006 6:11pm | comment (1) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Blog: blogalong with boris #31  

Hi all –
This blogalong is a little different – it starts with the pre European use of Norah Head—Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia.
Bungaree Norah (d 1830) Chief of the Broken Bay Tribe, Sydney was buried at Rose Bay.

  

Bungaree Norah was a respected Aboriginal living in the times of the first European invasion of Warren, to be called Australia by the invading British.His tribal lines were Guringai, and chose to live most of his life at the place now called Norah Head.He was the first Aboriginal to circumnavigate Australia twice in a European ship, and he also went to England and returned, unlike many of his people, who succumbed to western diseases.His assistance to the early colonists was noted with the naming of Norah Head, a headland jutting into the Pacific Ocean, which now holds a lighthouse.In pre invasion times, and probably during his life, one of the benefits of living at Norah Head was the occurrence of basalt, chert, quartz, and siltstone on the beach, washed from an ancient glacial river and deposited in the cliffs at Norah Head.These river rounded stones were used for tool making, and as the entire Sydney area is sandstone, as is  central coast, this source of tool manufacturing material was a sought after trade item.Bungaree and his mob would have very likely had to fight off other mobs to maintain a monopoly on this valuable rock.Evidence within the non disturbed areas of Norah Head still exhibit some of the tool flakes that were made there, showing a tendency to make product there instead of trading the rough stone.Time encroached on the life led for thousands of years, and white settlers eked into the land of the Guringai and the bordering Darkinong now [Darkinjung].Bungaree and his mob were encouraged to move camp to south of the Brisbane Water.The first vestiges of settler impact came in the late 1800’s for Norah Head. 

 

Unauthorized ‘cedar gangs’ in the Tuggerah area, after bringing the logs downstream from the ranges, would float the logs across the Tuggerah Lakes to the area later known as Canton Beach from where they would be taken the short distance overland to Cabbage Tree Harbour.  There was also a dray track from Wyong that passed through the scrub around Tuggerah Lakes to farms near Budgewoi and Norah Head.  This track to Cabbage Tree Harbour may have been used by the cedar gangs to haul the logs using bullocks. From here it was an easy task to ship the logs to Sydney. In 1833 several thousand feet of timber was seized at 'Bungaree Norah' for being illegally cut. 1830’s Edward Hargraves, the man credited with the first find of gold in the colony finally got the reward from the crown that had been posted by the crown in England, but ignored by the governors, as they didn’t want a gold rush like had happened in California in the 1830’s.Other settlers had also found gold and tried to claim the reward, only to be frustrated by the Governor.A Shepherd actually found the gold – Hargraves purchased/bartered the specimen from him, and put in the claim, which he eventually took to England to verify.He was paid the reward, and purchased a store in Gosford, which he sold, and purchased land at Norah Head from a land grant settler who had not worked the land.Hargraves bred Bullocks to sell to the local timber cutters, and had a dairy. Both these operations were at the north end of his land, at Pudgewoi, [now Budgewoi].He built his house from red cedar at what is now Jenny Dixon’s beach, Noraville, and lobbied heavily for the construction of a lighthouse at Norah Head, as shipwrecks were common.

  

“The lighthouse was strongly mooted by local landholder Edward Hargraves (who is credited with starting the first Australian gold rush in 1851) because of his concern over the number of wrecks in the area. These included the 'Gwydir' with three lives in 1894 and earlier a boat with 20 Chinese seaman whose bodies where washed ashore.established in 1903”Despite colonization, disease, and the massacre of Aboriginal people in the district, Hargraves developed a trading relationship with the remaining Natives.His papers show 40 tons of honey sold to a Sydney cigar maker, all traded from local Aboriginals, in the late 1890’s.A school and post office appeared at Noraville.Some dirt horse tracks were made, the Chinese at Canton Beach in nearby Tuggerah Lake [ windy and cold, in the local tongue] built a wharf at Cabbage Tree bay, adjoining Norah Head, and used it to export prawns to china and the northern goldfields.The lighthouse was built just after the turn of the century, after Hargraves had sold his property and moved to Sydney.During the 1900’s the bushland enjoyed by Bungaree gradually succumbed to European pastimes, -- the Pleistocene sand dunes and productive coastal wetland plain that had provided life, food, and culture for many Guringai, Darkinong, and, others, had better uses for the European landlords.Along came the railway, and a road from Sydney, which eventually opened up the area in the 1940’s for beachside holiday homes – more vegetation is cleared, houses are built, roads constructed, and in the 1960,s the removal of sand for construction began in earnest.Some understanding of the geology of Norah Head may be handy here – Norah was a  rocky outcrop, eventually being extended by sand dunes, locking off an ocean lake system, [ Tuggerah Lakes], with sand dunes stretching kilometers to the north [Budgewoi] and south [The Entrance] 
  

Norah head top left, The Entrance.top center, Toukley center, Budgewoi lower center. This dunal system was accessible from three points on the mainland, and was an extremely important food collecting area, [seafood], as well as tradable tool flakes and rock,  Paper bark, and medicinal plants.   Many campsites developed along the ocean dunes – shell middens are still to be seen in a few areas—After much opposition from the public, extensive sand mining for rutile and other minerals began on the south eastern north entrance peninsula.In 1991 Wyrrabalong National Park was gazetted, taking in 480 hectares on the West of the peninsula, the same year there was a large bushfire on the remaining untouched land at the Norah Head end of the peninsula.  

 

In 1992, I returned to the fire site to assess it for terrestrial orchids, and found thousands of a number of different fire responsive varieties. In 1996, I was sitting at home minding my own business, when I was handed an article in the local paper --  Landcom, the Government Housing Development Corporation was in the final stages of planning for an 800 house estate on the remaining ‘vacant’ land at Norah Head.I went for a walk in there for a few hours observing flora and fauna,

  

then went to the Norah Head Residents and Ratepayers meeting, which was about to sign off on the plans.The hall was full, with the council directors and the Landcom managers and architects sitting up the front like judges in a court room – with flash presentations.Sitting at the rear of the overfull hall, I listened patiently while the residents and designers argued about shifting the deckchairs, making the streets thinner, putting in traffic obstacles, and bitching about house lot sizes.Question time was held – I bided my time, expecting someone in the room to mention the one word ‘environment’, which had been absent from the discussions all evening. In 1996, Norah Head was the most expensive real estate in the shire – a headland with one entrance road, and a population with a slightly ‘get out of my backyard ‘ attitude.Many Norah Head residents did not want more residents to have a Norah Head address –So I held up my hand to speak.I introduced myself, said I was from out west, and had a concern about Norah Head – [out west was actually 6 kilometers away on the west of the lake] –And I quietly asked what was going to happen to the known endangered species that resided in that proposed development area.Well you could have heard a pin drop – and you could certainly see the jaws of the judges drop as rapidly as their skin went grey – Apparently they had hired consultants to survey for flora and fauna but they had not done a good job of the brief--  I had looked at the list they had at the meeting, and could double it off my head from the earlier walk that day alone – about 2 hours – They asked ‘what species’ – I replied I will give them a list in a few days—and left the meeting – I later found out that interaction by myself had broken up the meeting. 
 
 
 
The next day I arose just before dawn and started my survey of the block in earnest.What I found was enough for the precautionary principle to be applied, and I visited the Residents Chairman at his home – he called in the Secretary, who asked me why did I think I could stop the development – I replied ‘because I can’
  

My initial examination of the area found a number of listed endangered, threatened and significant species, so I pulled in the expertise of a number of specialists to confirm my finds.Also located was a new species of terrestrial orchid.During the existing files investigation I undertook with all available files concerning North Entrance Peninsula, I found information relating to Aboriginal habitation.In 1968, when the sand mining was started in the south eastern area of the peninsula, the first operation was the clearing of vegetation. This was stored in piles for spreading after the mining finished. The next stage was to gather the first foot of soil [sand], to sieve the impurities out before the sand could be mineral extracted. This was accomplished by passing all the graded material along a conveyor belt and through a sieve. The sticks, shells, and larger organic matter was removed for spreading over the finished site as it contained seed material to assist regeneration.But these stockpiles also contained bones.Thousands of bones.This was confirmed in interviews with two workers on the site that had remained in the district.The bones had come from the dunes, where the Darkinong, Guringai and others had buried their dead for years. They included obvious human remains.
 
  

The graves of the Chinese seamen that Hargraves buried in ‘death gully’ are still there – the mining did not enter this area.The piles containing the bones were spread all over the mine site in 1976.In 1997, I put in an application to have the area proposed to be developed with housing declared an endangered ecological community under the N.S.W. Threatened Species Act 1995, this was gazetted, Landcom pulled out, the land was transferred into Darkinjung hands due to a land claim and is still intact, albeit a bit further damaged.Darkinjung also obtained the land where the sand mining had been in the late 1990’s,and promptly sold the land to a golf course developer, where it was recleared of vegetation, dunally reshaped,  and covered with sand and grass.During my field investigations of the ex sand mine area in 1996-7, a number of human bones were located on the surface, removed, reported, and re buried in pre existing middens north of the sand mine. This golf course now sits on a huge Aboriginal Cemetery, the last resting place of many ancestors has now been scattered under greens and bunkers.In 1998, the Norah Head Ratepayers and Residents association was awarded an Environmental Planning Award from the State Tidy Towns Committee, and I was awarded an Australia Day Award for my Environmental work, based on the documentation I provided to save Norah head from development.The Norah Head Heath on Indurated Sand was added to the Threatened Species List as an Endangered Ecological Community. 
 
 
In 2006, the new species of Terrestrial Orchid I found within the Endangered Ecological Community at Norah Head was officially added to the threatened species list.


 
Posted: Nov 17, 2006 10:57pm | comment (2) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Message: Whale Call has small success at Wyong Council Meeting  
hi all --
at last nights wyong council meeting, i spoke to council supporting a motion by one councillor to create a petition shirewide to stop whaling.
the motion was passed, despite much dissent from other councillors --
a petition will be collected, and presented to the japanese embassy, our sister city committee, and the mayor of tanabe, our sister city.

more on this effort can be found here -- http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=7516&pst=551040

 
Posted: Oct 25, 2006 3:31pm | comment (0) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Blog: blogalong with boris #29  
Hi all --
Not long after the last blogalong, I was scrapping some copper pipe, and during the bashing process, the claw hammer I was holding in my right hand defied physics in front of my eyes, and doubled over in a successful attempt to break the middle knuckle of my right hand – this event slowed things down a bit – but now, almost a month later, it is almost back to original shape.

 

Typing was too percussively irritating, so I had to entertain myself with other projects – I have been doing some carving to strengthen the hand, and the results can be seen in the Whale and Ocean Art album in the Whale Call Gallery—

 


 

 

Fallen timber, cured by age in the sun, was collected from a Whale Dreaming Area, and transformed into musical Whale Calling Clapsticks.

 


This natural piece of Australian Turquoise is now a whale, waking from a fossilized sea --

 

The Caladenia Threatened Species application mentioned in the last blogalong has stalled, but the further supporting data I needed has been gathered now, so it will be under way again shortly.

Two other rare orchid species in this immediate area that are in dire straits, and on the verge of extinction have also been further plotted this season, with intention to renew the applications pending to protect those species as well.

 

 

 

This is a mutated Diuris sulphurea flower, some of the flowers parts are fused to others –

 

A two minute movie presentation of one of these almost extinct orchids has been made, but only available on cd so far – on the Golden Bearded Orchid,

 


Calochilus robertsonii golden Wadalba form –

 

There has been a further Wadalba Wildlife Corridor and Cultural Heritage report put on line since the last blogalong – #9 part 2 can be found here – 

 


 

and more on the report has been written but not released by the Wadalba Association.

 

The Wadalba reports are covering my day to day sightings and comments on environmental issues around my campsite, and include pictures.

A couple of days after the recent sighting of a superpod on false killer whales at Nelson Bay, Whale Call Media man Tony and myself drove to Nelson Bay to go on a Whale Watching Cruise on the catamaran Imagine –   http://www.imaginecruises.com.au 
 – With renowned Whale Photographer, Ray Alley.   www.printzofwhales.com

We wanted to go on the morning cruise, but it was booked, so we went in the afternoon.

 


In the morn they saw a mother and calf playing, but by the time we got out the heads, the north easterly had picked up and white water was everywhere obscuring blows, and the wind was flattening the blows – we saw a few, but too far out to go look – we both got a half price trip next time because there were no whale sightings – but we did get to see some dolphin pods in the bay – surfing the bow wave, and feeding and frolicking in the sun.

 

 
Posted: Oct 7, 2006 9:57pm | comment (2) | discuss (0) | permalink    
Tags: whales  
  Blog: blogalong with boris #28  
On Monday at 11am, the Whale Call Aussie Media representative, Tony, put 200 dollars into Bunna Lawries account to get him here to the Central Coast –
At exactly midnight on Monday, Bunna drove in my gate after a long drive from Byron Bay.
Permission was sought and received from Darkinjung living descendants for Bunna to do ceremony and to walk this country.
On Tuesday, Tony arrived, and we all went to Aunty Marjory Woodrow’s place, Darkinjung land council to meet with Jody, the Cultural Heritage Officer to organize Whale Dreaming Workshops in Darkinjung, Wyong and Gosford land, went on a walk examining Aboriginal Heritage sites at Wadalba, and looked a nearby sacred Whale Rock.
Due to heavy rain, the Whale was obscured so Bunna had to put his arm into the cloudy water to feel his cousin.

 


In a gentle manner, he spoke to the sleeping rock in its language –
 

That evening, Bunna met Lawrence, a Traditional Law Man from the Northern Territory.
On Wednesday, Rick, the Southern Oceans Co-coordinator for Whale Call took us to a site I had only heard about. Richter’s caves are in the State Forest near here, and above Richter’s Cave is a stunning natural rainbow.



 

In the Dreamtime stories of the Whale, a rainbow is seen when the Whale Blows – the fine water in the air creates rainbows—and Richter’s Cave is a Whale Rainbow Spectacle.
[thanks for your observance, Rick and Steve]
Whilst in the State Forest, we also went to another of Ricks climbing sites – Rick is an avid cliff climber – he had previously seen at this site some carvings, caves, and grinding bowls.
We were totally blown away.



 

The stories and field trips Rick has been on with me, have seriously rubbed off – he is now so alert to the signs in the bush he should be aboriginal.
Rick had found the most spectacular Whale Rock Cluster I have ever seen.



 

There are three huge whales on top of each other, one humpback, one sperm whale and one other. All these Whales had carved eyes, and carved images of the ‘space craft’ the local creator, Biame, had arrived in. Songline Trail carvings were obvious. These led us to the story of this rock complex, and further rock markings of Whale Tails at the top of the rock complex led us to a highly significant Whale Initiation Rock. This rock is in 4 pieces, similar to other Whale Complexes made from natural rock formations locally, with the tail broken off.
Many of the Whale Rocks I have seen here have the tail broken – hmmmm – maybe all I have seen – I should be more observant – this complex showed a brilliant real life looking tail on one of the Whales that had broken, but retained a real life size perfectly carved right tail fin.
Other events during the day were the meeting with Nikki Freeburn, the Promoter of the film, “The Gathering, Return of the Whale Dreamers” to meet Bunna and organize events for Sunday.
12.45 am thurs debs woke to the sound of a didgeridoo – Bunna is asleep, I am on the pc, not blowing my tube – hmmmm
Bunna was taken on Thursday morning to The Entrance Peninsula to look at shell middens and tool manufacturing campsites, and in the afternoon, to a significant art cave with a humpback Whale Dreaming rock and other Whale Related artifacts.



 

This trip was with Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council during a field trip with the Aboriginal Land Council Catchment Management.
Representatives from all over N.S.W. were present. A traditional smoking ceremony was held before we entered the site, where we all walked through the smoke from gum leaves to rid us of any bad spirits we happened to be carrying.



 

The rare species highlight of the day came as a state forest ranger, doing radio tracking in the area, showed us a pigmy possum that he was taking in to have the battery on his radio collar replaced.
 

On the first day of Spring in the Land of Oz, we took advantage of the warm day to do running repairs on Bunnas car – some rust holes to fill, some indicator and light problems, and one windscreen wiper not working – all fixed now and he is ready to hit the road again.
Then, an unusual day for me is to go somewhere that has hundreds of shoppers – a mega shopping mall.
I did it.
There was a good excuse for me to go – a national A.B.C. Radio interview with Yianni Johns, a well recognised artist, gallery director, and local identity, on a show called ‘ ????’ we didn’t get heaps of radio time, but we got the message across – the gathering, return of the whale dreamers, and the performance in The Entrance park of the Whale Dreaming, followed by the showing of the movie at the local cinema, and the mission of Whale Call.
After the show, we spoke to Yianni about doing a Whale Call Exhibition nationally – I am sure further meetings will ensue.
We then drove to Narara, --  Bunna, Tony and myself went to the Biame site we posted alerts about some considerable time ago – this highly significant site has had none of the protection or signage that was promised at the time, and our representative on this issue with local authorities has been misled or has failed to do physical follow-ups to report on the considerable recent damage to this site.
Further investigation of this site revealed a number of significant Whale Dreaming Markers, a large Whale rock that the Markers led us to, and one Whale Carving that had previously been misidentified.
Saturday took us to Terrigal Skillion to meet up with the promoters and performers for the Ceremony in The Entrance Park.
Whilst the ‘crew’ were eating at a seafood restaurant and breathing heavy coffee fumes, I walked the headland, sucked nectar from Banksias, absorbed fresh air from the Southern Oceans, munched on a few flowers, and saw a trio of Arctic Jaegers, a Sooty Albatross, one Little Tern, and a fur seal.
At the Ceremony, Aunty Lila Kirby, on behalf of the Darkinjung descendants, welcomed Bunna Lawrie to Country, and Bunna, played and sung a traditional Whale Dreaming song to wake the Whale Dreaming on the Central Coast.
As he was doing this, I was at a special underwater Whale Rock, with one of those modern beasts, a mobile phone. When the ceremony started, Tony rang me, and I played Bunna’s Whale Song to the water. The water immediately started bubbling, with hundreds of tiny air bubbles suddenly being released to the surface. A mob of birds suddenly appeared, including crows, magpies and noisy minors.
 

Mosquitoes swarmed around me – but could not penetrate my skin –
 

During this important Whale Business, there was an Orchid issue pop up.
Well, a few orchid issues actually, but one of the Caladenia varieties I found some years ago has been granted leave to be protected by the Threatened Species Act as an Endangered Species.
An Application to the N.S.W. Scientific Committee has been prepared by The Wadalba Association to have this plant listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.
 

This application is being supported [at this stage] by the following local orgs –
The Wadalba Association – ray.r@idl.net.au
Wyong Terrestrial Orchid Research – orchidman@bigpond.com
Whale Call Inc.- founder@whalecall.org
Wildplant rescue inc. -  ccwrs@hotmail.com
C.E.N. KYANSAL@bigpond.com
Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council -  j.cameron@dlalc.org.au
Organic Matters - mark@organicmatters.com.au
U.R.G.E - urgelakemac@iprimus.com.au
 

The draft supporting data is as follows –
 

Caladenia aff catenata var warnervalensis

 

 

In the mid 1980’s I came across a majenta banded Caladenia aff catenata within a type Caladenia population at Lake Haven.
By the time I did the Wyong Shire Orchid study for Wyong Shire Council in 1998, I had found a small number of this variety within the Warnervale area.
During the Orchid survey, further plants were located in Caladenia catenata populations within the shire.
This variety usually occurs within type populations of Caladenia catenata as single plants. Most dense populations of Caladenia catenata within the coastal plain in Wyong Shire contain one or two of this variety, and sometimes, rarely, plants are located in small populations of this variety alone.
Since the initial discovery of this species variety, many known plants have been lost due to development, land clearing, and road verge maintenance, and the population has had significant reduction.
Many more known surviving plants are within proposed development areas.
Less than 50 plants are known within conservation reserves within Wyong Shire.
In almost all situations, these plants exist in forested habitat.
Since the initial discovery of this variety, less than 500 plants have been seen, and the habitat of at least half of these has now been developed.
This season, although only half way through, has provided 58 specimens, 3 of which have been vouchered to the national herbarium, to add to the many vouchered specimens of this variety already held in the collection.
The Herbarium collection has a similar variety from the port ???????e area, but despite intensive searching by orchid experts in that area, not one Caladenia catenata has been located, indicating that if the Port Macquarie specimen is indeed the same variety as the Warnervale one, it is rarer in Port Macquarie than it is in Wyong, and it is extremely rare here.
The National Herbarium has never seen specimens in good enough condition of this plant from other locations within nsw to determine if it is unique to Wyong/Lake Macquarie.
As mentioned previously, there have been no vouchered specimens submitted except the
The geographical location and distribution of the variety according to current research is within Wyong Shire Coastal Plain, and southern Lake Macquarie shire.
Threats on the variety include illegal collection or deliberate destruction of tubers, land clearing, land slashing, invasive weed competition from Lantana camera, Chrysanthemoides monilifera, Whisky grass and Kikuyu, unrestricted growth of heathland into themeda populations, unrestricted growth of ground cover growth within Melaleuca nodosa and Kunzea ambigua populations , unrestricted ground cover growth in Spotted gun/Ironbark forests,  clearing of wetlands and wetland verges, trail bikes and 4 wheel drive vehicles, aerial and hand spraying of herbicides during above ground growth phase [ May to late November – national parks helicopter spray within the known habitat for this species in june/july], and inappropriate fire regimes.
Bandicoot tuber damage to Caladenia catenata populations in the 2006 season is considerable.
A considerable area within the projected population limits of this variety is planned for urban and industrial development within 20 years.
Areas around 7G wetland areas in the shire, that are not protected as wetland buffer zones, one of the favorite habitats for Caladenia catenata in Wyong Shire, are being systematically cleared.
30 hectares of the habitat have been cleared in one site alone at Warnervale, with hundreds more hectares of known population sites cleared since 1998.

 

 

Development at Lakehaven has also cleared at least 50 known plants.
As this variety shows significant physical differences to the type Caladenia catenata, the likelihood of it becoming a named species is high.
Within the examined flowering plants of this variety, exist some that do not fit the type. One miniature variety of Caladenia aff catenata warnervalensis has been located, and this sub variety has been found colonizing, with less than 30 known plants, not within a Caladenia catenata population, whereas the ‘standard’ aff warnervalensis usually appears as single plants within catenata populations.
Others have been found that resemble the autumn flowering Caladenia picta, with solid majenta columns, although these plants flower in Aug/Sept.
Both pink and white specimens have been located and vouchered to the csiro division of plant research/national herbarium.
 

See you in the next blogalong –

 
Posted: Sep 3, 2006 5:45am | comment (2) | discuss (0) | permalink    
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